İdil Sanat ve Dil Dergisi
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Cilt 7, Sayı 45  Mayıs 2018  (ISSN: 2146-9903, E-ISSN: 2147-3056)
Sait TOPRAK

NO Makale Adı
1525690447 WAR IMPRESSIONS OF PAUL NASH; DEPICTION OF DESTRUCTION OF NATURE

It is inevitable for the pictures that are about war to have a critical aspect. The prominent critical elements in such pictures have often been subject to reaction from political authorities and critics who have the same ideological tendencies. By using pressure on the artists it has been aimed to ideationally isolate the artist from life and to have the artist dissapear by withdrawing to a virtual plane of reality. It is seen that some artists maintain their dissenter attitude without making sacrifices from their way of thinking and crration in spite of all oppression, intimidation and obscuration; and succeeded in becoming a preponent subject in social life. One of these artists who did not compromise on his independence is Paul Nash who is also one of the most important names in British painting. Paul Nash made landscape paintings all his life. The mysterious and bare sides of nature became prominent in his paintings. Being sent to different fronts to draw the battle field during World War I and II as an official war artist, Nash observed the destruction of war on nature and tried to express his reaction to war’s destructive force through landscape painting. In this study, the priority was given to the information on the formation process of Nash’s art in order to understand the artist better. Then the position of the artist was tried to be identified by providing information on his art life. In addition, some of the artist’s works which express the effects of war on nature which Nash observed closely during both World Wars were analyzed; at the same time, evaluations were made on the ‘tree’ image, an important form, in the relevant pictures.

Keywords: Paul Nash, Landscape, Nature, Tree, Art, War, War Artist.